Service stations unhappy with AAA’s new car care center

We heard this morning from Ralph Bombardiere, who heads the state Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops, on what his members though of AAA Northway’s new car care center in Halfmoon. We wrote about the center on this morning’s business cover.

“They don’t like it,” Bombardiere said of his members. “For years we’ve been providing their service. They’ve beaten us up on price. It’s a slap in the face of the industry that helped build them up.”

AAA Northway, of course, certifies repair shops for its members, a program that will continue. But Bombardiere also wondered whether the towing and emergency road services that AAA provides its members will come with new restrictions, such as having to take the vehicle to the AAA car care center instead of the tow truck operator’s own repair shop.

AAA Northway’s first Car Care Center, a 10-bay auto service facility with an attached AAA travel office, is at 1647 Route 9 in Halfmoon.

One Response

Any suggestions on how to report a service center authorized to perform inspections? There’s one in the same town which told a woman they wouldn’t let her take her car because the state deems it unsafe to drive. She was forced to spend hundreds on inspection repairs. I couldn’t believe what they were telling this young woman.